Lars von Trier suggests that the terrible and the horrific are not to be found in the abnormal behaviour of an outsider, but within our relationships, and the play of domination and submission in everyday life.

His characters don'tt have the dramatic stylization of Hollywood films, but they respond to the stimuli given by John Cassavetes' unusual shooting style, which doesn't let the actors know whether they are on frame or not.

In a period when cinema accelerated editing and prioritised visual effects that oversimplifed the narrative, Tarr downplayed story-development in favour of formal abstraction, which forced the audience to respond to and reflect upon the material on screen, rather than simply consume it.

In this specific 2-disk DVD set, the BFI has compiled four rare films by Yasujiro Ozu plus a surviving fragment. The films belong to the genre of ‘The Student Comedies’, a genre which Ozu picked up from imported American films.